1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to computer media tape cartridges and in particular to a multiple volume computer media tape cartridge.
2. Background Art
Computer tape media cartridges contain spools of magnetic tape having multiple, parallel tracks for reading data from or writing data to the tape. Data is typically read or recorded by moving from a starting point on the first track of the tape to the end of the first track at the physical end of the tape. The process continues with the second track which starts at the end of the first track and proceeds back to the starting point of the first track, and so on.
The capacity of computer tape media cartridges has risen dramatically in recent years. In many cases, users are not readily able to fully utilize the complete data capacity of the tapes. Consequently, a significant amount of data capacity is being wasted. This problem is true of both linear and helical recording technologies.
A few solutions to this problem have been suggested by the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,259 describes a partitioning method that is exclusively controlled by data contained on the tape media. U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,459 describes a method of data redundancy aimed at improving tape access time. A third patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,548, partitions a helical scan tape storage subsystem by means of algorithms built into the tape drive with the resultant data stored in two locations. Each of these patents deals with various methods of tape formatting to achieve a separation or partition of data. Although these designs are workable, an improved apparatus and/or method for utilizing a tape cartridge more efficiently is desirable.